


Irenic

by homoamphibians



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Difference, F/M, Muteness, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sirens, The Avengers (2012) - Freeform, Tony Stark Gets a Hug, Tony Stark Has A Heart, mute character, relatively wholesome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23373316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homoamphibians/pseuds/homoamphibians
Summary: There was something to be said about a mystery. It hooked everyone in, leaving them with a desire to know more. It provided people with an inevitable urge to solve the mystery, figure it out.Niressa Arias was such a mystery. A silent woman who had a habit of popping up in places and then disappearing. She enchanted men and women alike but never engaged in a conversation with them.Tony Stark had seen her around so many times and her disappearing had only increased his desire to find her and have a conversation with her.Little does he know, she is silent for a reason. A reason that could potentially help or harm the Avengers. A reason that made her quite dangerous.But since when had danger ever stopped him?
Relationships: Tony Stark/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

Curious eyes stared at her, she could feel their presence.

A small smile, a touch of eye contact and a shrug was all she would ever give in response though.

It was a rule with her.

Keep them guessing, wondering who she was, but never let anyone in.

People, while interesting to toy with, were better off on the outside hoping for a window that they might look in with.

Better off locked out where they could not hurt her. Or rather better off locked out so they would be protected from her.

"Good to see you. Same tea as always or will you try something a bit stronger?" The barista asked her, his smile genuine as always.

She stared at him in disbelief for a moment.

He stared back, wrinkling his brow in confusion.

With a sigh, she reached downwards into her bag and pulled out a pad of paper.

"Oh! My bad," the barista realized his mistake.

She offered him a polite smile, the one she used for telling people it was alright.

He had not learned sign language and therefore could not communicate with her, unless the notepad was pulled out.

They had developed a system where instead of having to use the wad of paper she had always carried with her, he would simply ask her questions that could be answered with a nod or shake of her head.

The question he had asked forced her to pull out the paper.

She tucked it away as he rephrased.

"The usual?" He asked, his cheeks flushing slightly at his mistake.

Niressa nodded and handed the bills she had already pulled out to him.

His grin formed once again this time with more enthusiasm if that was possible, "Have a nice day."

She nodded in recognition before grabbing her bag and moving to an available seat.

Most seats were available, given it was nearing the coffeeshop's closing hours.

They closed before evening struck except at holidays where they were open into the early morning. It was unusual, perhaps, for a business but she liked them just the same.

Plus their tea truly was worth their strange hours.

She sat there a moment, tapping her fingers against the table. It was not her showing impatience, just showing the fact that she could never keep her hands still. She always had something to tap against or 'fiddle with'.

Her mother loved saying that her fingers would pick anything and everything apart into oblivion. This was not true, her mother had only lost a few shopping bags to Niressa's fingers and nothing of true value.

Plus plastic was killing the fish, so perhaps she had helped save the world by destroying a few bags in her lifetime.

It wasn't very long before she heard her name being called and went to collect her order.

A second polite smile and a nod got her her drink.

She then proceeded to exit the coffeeshop, heading towards her place of work.

The sidewalks were a bit crowded but nothing too major. Just a couple businesspeople getting off of work and heading to their cars. The usual crowd.

What was unusual, however, was that her shop was closed. It was open till 8, but yet had closed at 5.

She had taken her break but when she returned it was empty.

Curious.

Niressa pulled out her phone, texting Lemml about the shop. It took minutes of her engrossed in her phone to write the perfect text that didn't sound accusatory.

She had set her bag down, with her tea next to it while she texted her friend.

That bag was now dripping wet with tea and so was her foot.

Looking up from her phone she raised an eyebrow at the passerby who had just realized he knocked over her tea.

It didn't take a fool to see that that was Tony Stark in front of her.

"Sorry. Didn't see that there," he picked up her bag, "Can I get you a new one?"

She idly wondered if he meant the bag or the tea, but shook her head nonetheless.

"Can't I do something for you? I'm gonna feel like shit if I just destroy your bag and leave," he offered a smile to her.

It was charming.

She wanted to respond, converse with him. But she would not speak with her voice and doubted he knew ASL, he hardly seemed the type.

She shrugged before grabbing her bag and disappearing into the nearby crowd.

She could hear him following her for a moment, calling something sweet after her.

Until she had weaved through and lost him.

He was kind, as were most strangers to her, but she knew better than to get involved. Better than to put anyone at danger.


	2. Chapter 2

The winds of fate seemed to blow Tony Stark and her together as much as possible.

It seemed as soon as she had accepted the fact that she couldn't let anyone into her life, much less him, they had ran into each other much more often.

The wind was salty and cruel like that she supposed.

Forcing her to grow tougher so that constantly disappearing from his presence wouldn't feel as bad as it did. And frankly it stung each time her eyes fell upon his searching ones.

It was rather strange how he kept his interest of her even after she constantly fled from his presence.

His eyes still analyzed Niressa curiously every time they met. Whether it was locking eyes at the Stark Expo or on the streets or even in her favorite coffeeshop that he had randomly popped into.

He seemed determined to have a conversation with her, which was flattering but also alarming.

She found him intruiging but engaging in a conversation with him would break all of her rules, it would put him in danger.

She under no circumstances could let him in.

"You seem down," Lemml remarked, lounging on the counter.

She raised an eyebrow, signing to him, "You seem like you're not working."

"You should be happy," he looked at her.

She did not look at him, instead watching the customers as they meandered through the shop.

It was a sweet couple looking for outfits for each other to wear. The girls were having a good time, conversing loudly. It was lovely, something she truly wished she could also experience.

After a moments pause Niressa turned towards him, her fingers signing rapidly, "And you should be sorting through clothes so we can catch up on laundry."

He sighed, "Laundry is boring. So is sorting through clothes. My parents do that sort of thing. It's more fun people watching and talking with you."

A roll of her eyes and a pointed nod at the back room was all she responded with.

He sighed louder, making her wish she was deaf rather than mute. He huffed and stomped away, but he ended up doing his job so she was satisfied.

Teenagers, always so dramatic.

She was only a few years older than him but having left her teenage years behind her, she could say that. And say it she did.

Lemml had gotten used to it as they had gotten closer. He didn't know anything about her except for her name, address, and age. But yet, he was the closest friend she had ever had.

He was the exception to the rule and she was afraid of hurting him almost daily.

Which was why she could never make another exception, even if that exception was extremely interesting.

The couple came up to the register a moment later, one of the girls hiding behind the more confident one.

Niressa offered a polite smile as they dumped an armful of clothes onto the counter that used to have a sulky teenager on it.

"Cute dress. You both have good tastes," she wrote down before ringing them up.

The confident one wrapped an arm around the other, "Thanks."

She nodded at them, handing them a bag and watching them leave.

It remained quiet for a few hours, only exchanging texts between herself and her friend about how to properly sort laundry.

Which was why the bell obnoxiously jingling startled her.

She glanced up to see herself face to face with Tony Stark, who was carrying two giant garbage bags in his hands.

He grinned, "I come bearing gifts."

She stared at him, knowing why he was here but wondering why he had yet to give up.

He was as much a mystery to her as she was to him.

"I had some things lying around and I was told this was the place to donate them too," he remarked casually, as if he was not who he was in an establishment as this.

The thrift store was not a trendy high-end thrift store. It was a place where honest people donated their rags so that the not so well off could benefit from it. The place was not charmingly vintage like the coffeeshop Niressa frequently established, but rather the vintage that called for an update.

So him being here was rather bizarre and seemed as if he was a fish out of water.

She stared at him for a moment before realizing she had to respond to him.

He raised an eyebrow setting his bags down.

She uncapped her pen, "Shall we go through your donation together or would you prefer to simply drop it off?"

Realization dawned in his eyes, "You can't talk. That's why you haven't been responding. You know? That's kind of relieving, thought it was personal, I was about to take a self-confidence hit honestly."

She wrote underneath it, "Are you going to stay, sir or will you be dropping off?"

"I'll stay if you'll have me," he smirked.

This was going to be a long time of reviewing clothes she was sure of it.

Especially since Lemml was gawking from the door of the backroom at them.

There was only silence. An awkward silence that seemed to coat every inch of the room.

She was used to be silent but it was rather peculiar that the other two were speechless as well. From what she knew of them, silence was not their natural state of being.

Still, the only sound was two people breathing normally and one hyperventilating.

She turned to the freaked out teenager and started a conversation purely in sign, "You run the shop and I'll go through his items in the back room."

"That's Tony fucking Stark," Lemml signed back, his eyes still huge.

She rolled her eyes, "And? He's donating things, be grateful."

Tony Stark cleared his throat, "Some people say it's rude to talk behind somebody's back, ya know."

"Sorry sir, we weren't doing that. She was just explaining to me what position I needed to fill," Lemml spoke up at that point, still not breathing correctly but oh well.

He smirked, "I think you're lying but whatever. Keep your secrets."

Before Lemml could make more of a fool of himself, she stepped in.

Niressa gestured to Tony Stark to follow and headed into the back rooms, grabbing one of the trash bags that probably was worth more than her apartment.

He followed her into the cluttered back room, raising an eyebrow, "Cozy."

She rolled her eyes and pulled out a pad of paper, writing on it, "Shall we begin?"

"Isn't there an easier way to communicate?" He asked, glancing at her thoughtfully for a moment, "Give me your phone."

She raised an eyebrow but then shrugged. He would be buying her a new one if he broke it, she knew he could do that so she didn't feel too bad. All of her pictures were backed up onto her computer so she really had nothing to lose.

After a moment of fiddling with it, and making remarks about her lockscreen, he tossed it back to her, "All better. You can text me. It'll be easier than me trying to decipher that handwriting."

"My handwriting is perfectly fine," she texted him.

It was rather surprising when she heard a feminine voice read her text outloud.

She must've looked rather startled, because he laughed.

"Set it up so it'd read it outloud instead of me having to waste my valuable time by reading," Tony explained.

She nodded, her thumbs rapidly moving across the phone, "Makes sense."

This system was definitely more efficient. She would've wondered how she had never thought about that before, but he was obviously more technologically advanced than her so there was really no room to wonder.

"So what exactly are we doing back here?" He raised an eyebrow, looking around the room.

She grabbed them both chairs and set them up, "Going through your donation to make sure you want to donate everything and also make sure that there's nothing suspicious in there."

"Is this standard procedure?" He sat down, leaning forward as if he was interested as he did so.

She shook her head, "Nothing about this is standard, let's be honest. Typically, I do this part alone but you wanted to talk to me and honestly I'm tired of being chased down. Might as well do my job and figure out why you're stalking me."

"Oh? So you're aware of my attempts and have been trying to avoid me? I see how it is," he smirked.

She rolled her eyes, "What else was I supposed to do when a stranger pursues me?"

"Stop running, if you're okay with that," Tony remarked.

Niressa looked down, "If you catch me, I'm not sure you'll like what you find."

"Believe me Ariel, I have no room to judge anyone. I think I'll like you just fine, if you'll let me catch you."

She glanced up, a hint of a smile on her face, "I appreciate the nickname, but my name is Niressa."

"Cute name for a cute girl," he winked.

It was weird. Anyone else saying that might seem desperate or cringy, but he actually remained cool while saying such things. It was almost impressive.

She still rolled her eyes, "You got a name yourself?"

"Tony Stark. Though you can call me anything you want," he smirked.

She shook her head, this would be an adventure to say the least. But one she might be willing to take.


End file.
